The death of Ken Barrington, aged just 50, during England’s tour of the West Indies in 1980-81 stunned cricket. His talent as a batsman was put into perspective by John Woodcock in the 1970 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
The illness which ended Ken Barrington’s career at the age of thirty-eight revealed the extent to which a rugged physique had been undermined by the anxieties of representative cricket. It also deprived England of a remarkable batsman.
Between 1959 and 1968 Barrington amassed runs, for Surrey and more particularly for England, with implacable intensity. It was his ambition to surpass every Test match aggregate, and he was well on the way to doing so when the effort caught up with him.
Playing in Melbourne, in a double-wicket tournament, he suffered a thrombosis which led to his announcing his retirement in April 1969. Now, as the father of a new-born son, a writer on the game, the co-owner of a sports clothing business and a keen golfer, he is leading a relaxed and happy life.
Barrington’s aptitude for cricket did not end with his batting. He was a versatile fielder, with a good arm and a quick eye. For Surrey he spent most of his time at slip; for England he was generally further from the bat. To his own bowling he was all over the place. Yes, his own bowling. Had he been born in Australia I am sure he would have become a considerable all-rounder. In England, most young cricketers who join a county as a leg-spinner, either finish up as a batsman or fail, often for want of encouragement, to make the grade. In Australia, at the time when Barrington was launching his career, no side was seen to be complete without at least one leg-spinner in it, and Barrington, though he bowled so little, was quite as good as some who played regular Sheffield Shield cricket.
As an Englishman, Barrington was given the opportunity to take only 273 wickets, and that is a reflection on, if not an indictment of, the captaincy as well as the methods of the age in which he played. He was generally put on as a last resort, coveted though his victims often were.
In Test cricket he took 29 wickets. These included Sobers (twice), Nurse, Hunte, Walcott, McMorris, Camacho (twice), Walters, Cowper, Davidson, Umrigar and Borde. Yet several whole series passed without Barrington, who greatly enjoyed his bowling, being asked to bowl. All the while the seamers were taking an increasingly firm and unwelcome hold on the game.
Off the field, Barrington was a most amusing companion. Gone was the introspection of his batting, if not the determination which was so much a part of it. I recall an incident which illustrates his attitude to life, yet which had nothing to do with cricket. We organised, one Christmas Day in Adelaide, some afternoon golf, as an aid to digestion. With the help of various sweepstakes and an auction, Barrington became aware that he could win himself quite a substantial sum of money if he played to his handicap. As a result, no one drank less with the turkey or left earlier for the course or applied himself more painstakingly to the business of finishing first. Bradman, on his home course, Dexter, Graveney and Cowdrey were among those whom Barrington beat that day. He won the competition by a street.
His sense of humour extended to his reaching no fewer than four Test hundreds with a six – at Melbourne, Adelaide, Durban and Trinidad. The stroke he used for the purpose was a violent pull which took everyone completely by surprise and invariably ended a protracted period of defence. He was a splendid mimic, the Australian, Ken Mackay, being among those he took off with great skill. Nor does anything go on under the bonnet of a motor car which mystifies him.
Sometimes, to hear him talk, you might suppose he looked upon slow batsmanship as one of the deadly sins. But it is a trait of captains and batsmen that they cast off their inhibitions when they retire. And Barrington, by the time he did so, had made for himself an extraordinary collection of batting records. Of these his own personal favourites are shared with no one. He alone has made a Test hundred on every Test match ground in England and in every Test-playing country of the world.
